time to go fandolitical

[slumber]

• fandom_counts currently has 23191 members and the number changes every time I refresh. That is rather awesome.
  
  
• Yeah, yeah, I am SO LATE to the party. Later, in fact, than Mr CEO's attempt at PR management. FAIL, Mr CEO, FAIL. It's not the apology that matters as much as the EXPEDIENCY with which it is received.
  
  
• What say you, flist? If LJ had never been bought by Six Apart, do you think this would have happened? (I'm not suggesting anything, but hey, if you have any opinions, go ahead. :P)
  
  
• Although to play devil's advocate, I suppose you can't completely blame Six Apart for wanting to cover their asses. Their lawyers say that LJ would have been held liable for the content of the journals, even though fandom_lawyers say otherwise. This I would like to see in court. Or celebrity death match.
  
  
• But still. Considering Six Apart's the big boy here (I mean, really, what were they scared of, again? Internet vigilantes? Who don't even use livejournal? If they were going to be scared of people on the intarwebz, they should look to those responsible for putting those dollars in their paychecks. Geez.)
  
  
• Re: Fandom Unite! efforts, though... Besides fandom_count, which is useful only insofar as at least giving us a count of how many we are, I don't think other efforts will work as well. The size of fandom is its weakness as much as its strength. There are many of us, sure, but we are as scattered in what we'd like done as we are with, you know, the kinks in our user infos, so. *shrugs*
  
  
• 23376 members now. That is pretty awesome. How many do you think we'll get?

Comments

[onlysayitonce.livejournal.com]

Their lawyers say that LJ would have been held liable for the content of the journals

I really don't think that's what they said. LJ's user agreement pretty clearly says that they're not responsible for content - what they're responsible for, though, is the use of interests, which can be searched, to advertise and promote illegal activities. Maybe I'm wrong, because they did talk about content in that post, but that's what I've been able to gather from what I've read so far.

I have to say that I'm of the opinion that it's Six Apart that caused this, though. Mostly because they brought in the advertisers, which brings a financial consequence to any questionable or controversial events. I also think there's more of a big-business, quick lets cover our asses mentality that LJ didn't have before. I can understand where they're coming from this time, because they did end up deleting a lot of truly pedophilic journals and communities, but I think the huge mistakes they made can be blamed on their entirely rushed reaction. If they'd glanced at the content of the things they deleted they could have sent out warnings to some to change their profile and deleted the actual problems - all at once, though, so they don't have time to warn each other or whatever.

What really bothers me, though, is the people walking around saying "Fandom is being targeted." It doesn't take more than reading a couple of posts with actual content to get past that idea, and yet there's already a wave of panic and anger rolling through fandom.

In other news, I had a dream about QaF last night, which I haven't even seen for months, and it made me think of you. I think you're inexorably linked with QaF in my mind.

[slumber.livejournal.com]

There was an explanation sent to femmequixotic about how there could be grounds implicating LJ as being complicit should interests include questionable material, because the fact that they come up in searches can actually be construed as solicitation of those interests.

LOL, there was a person who'd heard that LJ was deleting all fandom journals, and I was like "...what?" Couldn't be more misconstrued.

Hahaha, I am so flattered by that. :P I am not sure why I'd be inexorably linked with QaF though, as I am definitely not the biggest fan around, but it is a luffly show. :P

[onlysayitonce.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the really quick, powerful reactions fandom gives can be really amazing and inspiring, and then things like this happen, and... I don't know.

I think it's because you were one of the first people to introduce me to QaF, and you were sort of fanatic about it when I was first watching. :D